Feline Buddies

Ollie and Benny have been staying with us for about a month, and they seem very happy here, cavorting with my cat Mister.  Ollie and Benny are my daughter's two cats who occasionally spend time here without my daughter.  Ollie is the 'shoulder-baby' cat, the one in a million cat. 'Shoulder baby' occurs when he climbs up onto my chest and rests on my shoulder, indulging in and succumbing to my petting him under his chin and on his forehead, purring ever so loudly. He comes to me several times a day, especially when I'm on my computer, when I'm sitting on the sofa, when I'm lying in bed. You don't need a dog if you have Ollie. If he's not doing shoulder baby, he engages in whimsical antics like sitting upright on top of a cluttered dresser, as if playing freeze tag, or sporting a yoga pose on the tv stand in front of the tv. He frequents the top of the refrigerator and thinks nothing of jumping to a high-up window ledge to peer into the neighbor's yard.

You wouldn't think that cats would learn from each other, but Mister tends to copy his feline peers. After their previous extended stay, Mister would come up on the couch and almost mimic shoulder baby. He would often sleep on our outstretched bodies when we watched tv. 

There was a period of time when my daughter's cats slept on top of these suitcases we kept in the basement. The suitcases were stacked up high, one on top of the other, on top of a folding table. Each cat would lie on a separate suitcase and occasionally bunk together on one. I soon discovered that a suitcase or two was dented in, incurring irreparable damage. I then had to rearrange the suitcases, keeping the dented ones on top, and placing ones we wanted to keep, in another area. Nightly the three cats wound up on the suitcases, something Mister had never considered before.

Another habit Mister has taken from Ollie is napping on the dirty clothes on the basement table. When we bring down the laundry, the dirty clothes are set on the table prior to doing a laundry. Ollie chooses to sleep on top of the dirty clothes, even on sweaty exercise clothes. Mister has joined Ollie and there is now an inordinate amount of cat hair embedded in those clothes. We will have to make some changes.

Each of these three cats has so much personality. They have made these cold winter weeks so much warmer and livelier. Soon Ollie and Benny will return to their New York City apartment, and we will once again be alone with Mister. We'll then see what new tricks he has picked up from his buddies.